Laptops in the Classroom

EDUC 8841 – Ennis Brinson

The Need for Laptops in the Classroom

The role of computer and laptop technology can promote positive social change in education

Learners are able to work independently at their own pace more often or in groups utilizing their laptops to learn how to organize and process projects.

Research of the Laptops in the Classroom

• Research findings explain how learners who utilize laptops as an everyday learning tool are more collaborative and more involved in their schoolwork.

The Development of Laptops In the Classroom

• 1960s - Vocational Education Act passes but the mainframe and minicomputers in use operated with batch processing methods that were viewed as conflicting with the single teacher-as-manager-of-learning methods in use in most public schools

• Vocational Education Act of 1963 encouraged, although the technology available did not mix with popular views of education.

• Education Act of 1965 made minicomputers available schools but were intended for administrative purposes.

The Development of Laptops In the Classroom

• The goal of the Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation (AALF) is to ensure that all children have access to unlimited opportunities to learn anytime and anywhere and that they have the tools that make this possible.

The Development of Laptops In the Classroom

• The growth of the internet proliferated much faster than anyone could have predicted.

• Internet developed into the largest database of information, graphics, and streaming video

• The internet has become an extremely invaluable resource for educators

The Commercialization of Laptops in the Classroom

• Sept. 11, 2000 —the U.S. Department of Education's Secretary's National Conference on Educational Technology: Measuring Impacts and Shaping the Future, students and teachers from the Mott Hall School.

• Every student has their own laptop computer and demonstrates how technology transforms learning.

The Commercialization of Laptops in the Classroom

• Access to technology improves student learning and encourages collaboration among students.

• Laptops support all elements of education from research to reflection.

• Learners may work in groups more often and at their own pace, using their laptops to learn how to process and organize assignments

S-Curve

Perceived Attributes

• “Change in higher education expedited by technology is a safe bet for the future, it is equally certain that technology adoption will proceed unevenly across the higher education landscape and be driven by a wide range of factors” (Henshaw, 2008).

Demographics

Students from higher socioeconomic levels will ultimately realize the most educational benefits from their use. As the students of today do, these students of the future will have the earliest access to leading-edge educational products (Henshaw, 2008).

Perceived Attributes

• IT equipment and security should be identified and adapted as needed to suit needs of end users.

• Technology based communications such as email and list serves should be utilized as the primary means of correspondence.

• Scanning capabilities will reduce on and off site storage costs in addition to the postage cost associated with paper mailings.

Critical Mass and Change Agents

• Diffusion moves from experts to users, from the top down in centralized systems while individuals construct and distribute information with others in an effort to develop a reciprocal appreciation in decentralized diffusion networks (Rogers, 2003).

• The task of bringing technology to these individuals lies with the educational technologists and other change agents.

Critical Mass and Change Agents • A decentralized approaches is best

suited because of it focuses on improving education by looking closely at accountability and decision making as they relate to learner development.

• Decentralization can be utilized as a method to distribute and reallocate influences to numerous stakeholders to transform education to be more responsive to the unique needs of the local community and capitalize on the creativity, knowledge, and energy of all individuals within the school and community.

Critical Mass and Change Agents • Probably the most important role of the change agent in

promoting the adoption of commuters and laptops in the classroom is their ability to create intent to change in their clients (Rogers, 2003).

• The movement for computers and laptops in the classroom has a great number of change agents. Rogers postulates that a change agent is an individual who persuades client innovation decisions in a way considered to be advantageous by a change agency (Rogers, 2003).

• Administrators, educators, technology staff, students, parents, and community leaders can all perform critical roles. Their impact can be generated in efforts to establish the information exchange relationship as well as develop the need for change (Rogers, 2003).

Critical Mass and Change Agents

• Students can be view as change agents because they are huge resource in providing computer and other tech savvy knowledge to teachers, technology staff as well as other employees and staff.

• Students can help to diagnose problems as well as help computers and laptops in education achieve a terminal relationship (Rogers, 2003).

Critical Mass and Change Agents• Some of the other influential key

change agents will inevitably be community and educational leaders outside of the control of the schools and who do not adhere to the tendency to force new ideas into old traditions.

• These individuals can help by employing their influences to stabilize adoption and prevent discontinuance as well as translate intent into action (Rogers, 2003).

Critical Mass and Change Agents

• Although most schools have computer labs and a lot of them have computers in the classroom. Unfortunately, computers and laptops in classrooms for educational purposes have not reached critical mass.

Critical Mass and Change Agents

• The implementation and integration of computers and laptops into the curriculum will succeed by empowering educators with ample time to conceptualize, collaborate, explore, and practice.

Defining the need for Computers and Laptops in Education

• As computers and laptops become widely available to teachers and students, instruction will be changed.

The need for Computers and Laptops in Education

Consider the effectiveness of technology:

• Learning environment • Teaching • Learning• Students • Motivation and

engagement

Make the difference

Usefulness in educational environments:

• Researching• Organizing• Expressing information• Capturing and analyzing • Student communication

and collaboration

Make the difference

As educators we must develop a view of the impact and prospective transformation on different sets of variables:

• Cognitive abilities• Engagement with the material• Motivation to participate in

learning• Social development • Teaching pedagogy

Resources

• Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation (AALF) http://www.aalf.org/cms/?page=AALF%20-%20About

• Bebell, D., & Kay, R. (2010). One to One Computing: A Summary of the Quantitative Results from the Berkshire Wireless Learning Initiative. Journal Of Technology, Learning, And Assessment, 9(2), Kay, R. H., & Lauricella, S. (2011).

Resources

• Exploring the Benefits and Challenges of Using Laptop Computers in Higher Education Classrooms: A Formative Analysis. Canadian Journal Of Learning And Technology, 37(1),

• Henshaw, R. G. (2008, June/July). A singular vision for a disparate future: Technology adoption patterns in higher learning through 2035. Journal of Online Education, 4(5).

Resources

• Internet Adoption http://www.pewinternet.org/Trend-Data/Internet-Adoption.aspx

• Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). New York, NY: Free Press.

• Wireless Laptops in the Classroom (and the Sesame Street Syndrome). (2006). Communications of the ACM, 49(9), 25-27.